Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1780. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Health if families who have been denied respite care due to the fact that no respite care is available in a public facility due to Covid can get financial assistance towards the cost of respite care in a private nursing home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40409/22]
View answerRespite services are critical in supporting persons with disabilities and their families and older persons and potentially helps prevent early admission full-time residential placements. As Minister of State for Mental Health and Older Persons, I am acutely aware of the importance of respite for service users and their families.
The need for increased respite provision for people with a disability and older people is acknowledged by Government and is reflected in the HSE’s National Service Plan for 2021 and 2022.
Government has provided an unprecedented level of investment in the 2021 Budget to improve access to primary care services and older people’s services including €150 million of additional funding for home support to progress the development of a reformed model of service delivery to underpin the statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support services. This funding has been maintained into 2022, providing for 5 million more hours of home support.
Respite Care is arranged on an assessed care needs basis within a client’s CHO area and applications should be submitted locally through their local HSE Primary Care health providers, such as Public Health Nurses and can take place within their own home or in a residential care unit managed by the HSE, voluntary agencies or by private providers. Respite can occur in a variety of settings for various lengths of time, depending on the needs of the individual service user and their family or carer.
At present, there is no scheme or mechanism in place to provide direct funding to clients to avail of such a service at a private nursing home and as such applications for HSE funded respite care should be applied for through their local HSE Primary Care health providers.
For older persons and their families, the impact of the necessary reduction in respite service availability due to COVID-19 cannot be underestimated. The pandemic has also had long lasting effects on scheduled construction projects and has accelerated the closure of some of the HSE's community beds in order to comply with social distancing and infection control requirements. There have also been significant challenges regarding the recruitment of both nursing and healthcare assistant staff within the nursing home sector and home care sector.
In response to the challenge in recruiting staff for the nursing home and home care sector I have established a strategic workforce advisory group to examine strategic workforce challenges in front-line carer roles in home support and nursing homes. Areas being considered by the Group include recruitment, retention, training, pay and conditions, and the career development of front-line carers in home support and nursing homes into the future. This Group has been working with key sectoral stakeholders in a structured programme of ongoing consultative engagements to further explore and define the issues.
I recognise the importance of respite care to allow carers to take a break from their caring role and from the possible stresses that this role may give rise to. At present the Government provides €55.5 million annually for public respite beds and €7.7m for privately contracted respite beds. There is also additional funding available to CHOs for locally contracted respite beds.
In the public sector, there are currently 243 beds identified as general respite and a further 20 beds defined as dementia specific. There is also a further 244 beds categorised for convalescent care, which may also be used for respite purposes as required.
Under the winter planning 2021, the HSE made the decision to purchase additional short stay bed capacity by contracting 567 additional beds from private healthcare providers. As part of this contract 89 of these beds were privately contracted as respite beds available across 4 four CHO areas, with 8 of these beds being defined as dementia specific.
Respite remains a key priority for me and Government, reflected in the funding commitment achieved for the development of new respite centres, alternative respite and the expansion of existing services.
